You can make a complaint about adult social care services using our online complaints form.
You can also make a complaint by calling us.
This complaints process applies to complaints by an adult (or their representative) who receives or is entitled to receive an adult social care service.
How we will deal with your complaint
We will:
- write to you to acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days
- work out who will respond to your complaint
- offer to discuss your complaint with you and explain how the complaint will be investigated
- respond to your complaint within 10 working days.
If you have an advocate
If you have an advocate (someone who represents you), we will deal directly with them until the investigation into the complaint is completed. If you don't have an advocate, we will consider whether to appoint one.
High risk cases
In high risk cases, we will appoint an independent investigating officer. This is someone who:
- does not work for us
- is independent of the service involved
In these cases we will appoint an adjudicating officer to consider the independent investigating officer’s findings. The adjudicating officer will respond to the complainant explaining whether or not they accept the investigating officer’s findings with clear explanations.
The timescale may be extended in high risk or complex cases and we will write to let you know if that is the case.
If we are unable to resolve the issue
If we are unable to resolve the issue and you are dissatisfied with the response, you can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. We will provide the relevant contact details when we respond to the complaint.